1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system networking, and more particularly to a system and method for the dynamic allocation of information handling system network addresses.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
The growing use of information handling system networks has driven enterprises to seek reliable and compact server information handling systems to service networks. Rack dense blade server information handling systems have become a plausible alternative to traditional monolithic servers to prepare data centers with “cold stand-by” server resources. Blade information handling systems operate out of a common chassis so that greater processing capability is managed in a reduced footprint. In the event of a failure, replacing a blade server information handling system within a blade chassis instead of server components within a monolithic server offers end users a more rapid and less complex way to maintain server resource availability in a data center environment. As an example, blade server information handling systems provide a convenient platform for managing storage of information in a storage area network (SAN). A Fibre Channel (FC) Host Bus Adapter (HBA) interfaces each blade information handling system with a SAN to support storage and retrieval of information on storage devices of the SAN. In order to track interactions between HBAs and the SAN, each HBA has a unique World Wide Name (WWN), which is a 64 bit address typically populated at manufacture. The uniqueness of the WWN is leveraged in a SAN to facilitate array-to-host LUN masking and to perform zoning on FC switches.
Although replacement of blade information handling systems provides a convenient way of addressing hardware failures in a network, a difficulty arises when the replacement blade information handling system's network address is different from the network address being used for communication with other network devices. For instance, replacement of a blade server information handling system or an FC HBA introduces a new WWN to the network that typically requires end user administrative actions on FC switches and within the storage array to resume normal operations. Such administrative actions typically include manual changes to the switch zoning and array-to-LUN masking so that the blade information handling system can retain or resume access to SAN storage devices. Manual administrative changes to the network configuration create opportunities for the introduction of errors, require administrative expertise and delay full availability of server resources. These difficulties take from the advantages provided by the component architecture of blade information handling systems for rapid replacement of faulty server resources.